No. 1 BYU Falls 3-0 to No. 9 Stanford for First Loss of Season

Provo, Utah - The No. 9 Stanford Cardinal (10-6, 6-6) walked into the Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday night to hand the No. 1 BYU men's volleyball team (12-1, 7-1) only their second home lose in the last two years and the Cougars' first lose of the season as the Cardinal closed out the match in straight games 3-0.

Junior outside hitter Ivan Perez led the Cougars against the visiting Cardinal on the night as he recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 24 kills and 16 digs. BYU also had a strong performance by sophomore libero Joel Silva who had 14 digs on the evening.

"Stanford played great," BYU coach Shawn Patchell said. "They had more energy than us tonight after a long, grueling match last night. No excuses, though. Now it is all about how we respond from here."

The first game went back and forth for the Cougars and the Cardinal as neither team ever led by more than two points throughout the whole game. There were 11 lead changes in the first game and even required extra points to determine the winner.

After having the first four game point opportunities, the Cougars were unable to close out on any of them and that opened the door for Stanford as the Cardinal won the game on their first game point opportunity 35-33. BYU lost the first game in a match for just the fourth time this season despite a big individual effort from outside hitter Perez as he recorded 10 kills in the first game.

Both teams came out firing early in the second game but the Cardinal proved to have the edge yet again as they eventually won 30-22. The game was very tightly contested until both teams got into the 20s but that did not last long. The game was tied 21-21 then Stanford went on a 7-0 run and the Cardinal did not look back from there as they cruised to the game two victory.

In the third game Stanford was able to carry over the momentum from the previous games as the Cardinal came out early and found themselves up by three early, 10-7. The Cougars clawed their way back into it though. One pivotal point came when Jonathan Charette had an impressive pancake dig that lead to a BYU point and sparked a Cougar 3-0 run to help put BYU up 14-13. This match came down to the wire just as it too took an extra point by the Cardinal to finally hand the Cougars their first lose of the season as Stanford won the final game 31-29.

BYU senior opposite Charette made his first appearance of the series versus Stanford in the second game with the score at 19-18. Charette, who came into this weekend's competition against the Cardinal leading the Cougars in attack attempts, was limited to action this week because he has been battling bronchitis.

BYU will next be in action on Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. as they take on Pacific University in the Smith Fieldhouse.